Hmmm

Meh Glass Knives

@Gilbert Wham - and me doggy. He called Natty Bumpo. Him offshore data ship should have a big trunk for eating methane clathrates. And der big turbines for spraying ocean into the sky. And him offshore ship - all da crew wear dataspex and farn algae.

Mr. Frodo

Crippleware

I would have thought that it would be against Microsoft's interests to make the online jobby too functional - otherwise it will cannibalise sales of the desktop version. It'll be crippleware. Unless you actually pay for the web stuff.

Donkey Kong

Ideal...

I remember being told by someone who looked after mobile phone stuff for a large company that some of the sales force seemed to have a lot of accidents with their mobiles. The staged roll out of a new model was mere coincidence. As was the fact that the concerned individuals seemed to be scheduled towards the end of the roll-out.

A sample of 88 kids?

Yes, well, proper statistical training does not exist for journalists.

Texting is a consequence of ridiculous inertia in the mobile world. You would have thought that mobile email/instant messaging would have caught on and destroyed texting. The pricing of texting is a total rip off, especially for PAYG customers. And that crappy letters imposed on a phone keypad interface? Sheesh. Microwriter anyone?

Shurely Shome Mishtake

Yes, well...

If they do exist, echo BlueGreen's points.

Thing is, it is an ideal guerilla weapon and has potential in asymetric warfare. I thought that a central plank of US military doctrine was to create lots of hi-tech toys for boys. EMP flash weapons erode that. Either you build incredibly hardened systems - with, doubtless, an increase in weight - or you go back to "dumb" systems. I know what would be cheaper.

Can the temptation to put this type of weapon into the hands of guerilla forces be resisted? Equipping the mujahadin with shoulder launched guided missles is one thing.

Open Source?

How much dev has been done on Kangaroo? How close is it to the finished product?

I presume that a lot of license fee payers money has been spent on it so they might as well give what they've done to us folks to make what use of it we see fit. It's not as if they can sell the technology.

I'll set up a TV studio in my shed and make my programmes available to teh interwebs. It's got to be better quality that YouTube.

I've got iPlayer up and running on my Wii.

I know that if Kangaroo did come along I would be severely tempted to dump Virgin Media. Even more so because of FreeSat.

Air Bearings? Liquid Bearings? Magnetic Bearings?

Erm...

I get the feeling from some of the posts that there is a belief that somehow pornography is not connected to the "real world". That somehow pornography exists in a moral vacuum completely separated from the moral implications of the "real world" acts that are depicted.

Desensitisation anyone?

In reality, I don't have a problem with the BDSM community making pornography for their own comsumption and the consumption of interested others. I might not like the images, they may provoke a strong emotional reaction in me, but I can choose not to look at them. And there are things that can be done to ensure that looking at such pornography is a very deliberate act rather than an innocent stumble upon.

Bah...

My revulsion to BDSM? God, no. I don't empathise because I have no real inclinations in that direction. What I find incredibly difficult to deal with is sitting there as a manager and having a member of staff tell me what their partner was doing to them. Or having someone open up to me about years of abuse. Speaking to people who are non-consensual victims of sexual sadism isn't fun. Knowing the perps is even worse. I really don't want go into detail. Just remembering stuff and thinking about it is very upsetting.

And I was subject to violent punishment as a child.

Of course, I am totally guilty of extrapolating my anecdotal evidence to a wider situation than I should but... It is fair to say that I know folks who are into BSDM and do the safe/sane bit but, sigh, the emotional impact on me is zero compared to the other experiences.

Am I not permitted to have an emotional reaction? It strikes me that some of the posts above represent an emotional reaction to the legislation.

Yes, I do have a real problem with depictions of sexual violence. And I think Graham's position is one of "special pleading". So, if there are two images depicting the same act, one of them is OK because the motivation is fine by your lights, but the other isn't? Is this position reasonable? Images carry no instrinsic information regarding the motivation behind them.

Yes, I am "illiberal" if you want to call me that. But that does not mean that my position is invalid. Sid makes an important point. This law will affect very few people.

What Would Jesus Say?

Of course it's a stupid law as it is written.

But many laws are written in such broad terms. Without a written consitution case law plays a very important part in the UK judicial system. So, we may see many silly prosecutions as the police/cps test the limits of how the judiciary intrepret the law. OK, it may well be the case that the judiciary is out of step with public opinion. We might see a temporary return to something like the situation before John Mortimer and the Lady Chatterley trial, but... I can live with that.

And bad cases make bad law. The Dangerous Dogs Act is a perfect example. True, some breeds are more aggressive and unpredictable but a badly treated dog is a danger regardless of the breed. The bad case = bad law issue is the one that concerns me the most.

Some people may have a problem with the State being the guardian of public morality but arguably a State that does not protect the vulnerable from the moral excesses of certain individuals is a failed State. I would posit the bad old days of husbands not being prosecuted for sexual violence against their spouse. Arguably, the failure to prosecute could be viewed as condoning sexual violence within marriage.

The danger with a highly prescriptive law is that would allow perps to potential get off on technical interpretations of the law. Ah, it's not OK to perform a certain act with a duck strapped to your head, but a chicken, that's OK.

@Mycho - erm, "sadism comes from the urge to comfort those in pain" - I've heard that one before and I don't think it washes. For example, think about psychopathy. It is the psychopath's inability to empathise with the victim that allows them to do their pyschopathic thing. Oh sure, there maybe some people in an SM relationship who think that way but most of the BDSM fuit loops I've met have more complex and unpleasant motivations.

Forums

@Steven Jones - Yes, I agree. Forums related to products are the best place to find about about a particular product but not particularly useful when making direct comparisons between individual products. What I think particularly useful is that forum folks tend to use the product for real. Also, an active forum really adds value.

As for user generated reviews - it depends. Some of the sites I look at, I'll see some user names crop up again and again. You start to treat them like you would "real" reviewers. Some you trust more than others.

What Would Jesus Say?

Yes, well...

My initial thoughts that the article was stating the obvious. On reflection, I've seen plenty of people with the wrong laptop... My employer has a one size fits all approach and equips people with dinky ThinkPads. No use to me - if I couldn't have a pocket rocket desktop replacement I might as well stick with a desktop.

Oh sure, the right form factor for the job in hand but this does lead to profileration of the numbers of models that need to be supported. I think I'm right in remembering that some vendors produce pretty much identical desktops in different form factors? Is this the case with laptops? I don't think it is. There is no reason why different form factor laptops can't share, say, the same motherboard, or have the same sort of battery connection, etc.. This gets round some of the support issues.

Something else I've seen is companies handing out laptops when in reality they should have desktops and have proper hot desking. Or dish out USB drives with proper security that they can use if different offices. Another thing is that people don't also make the best use of desktop stuff that they bump into. They don't use external monitors, they don't use keyboards and mice. I don't know about you lot, but certain activities laptops are a bane to productivity.

What Would Jesus Say?

Underground Cables

@John Young - I'm sure that you are right. I remember visiting National Grid control centre as a school kid and I think I'm right in saying that the big stuff uses aluminium.

However... Am I right in thinking that little stuff and underground stuff uses copper? My parents' house is supplied by a long underground cable and it was dug up and stolen. Telephone cables too at one point.

Zero Investment in Public Sector IT Support

For a start off, if the re-booting of a PC in an operating theatre is considered dangerous, arguably, the situation that occurred should be considered a "near miss". Accident reporting process that should exist as part of Health & Policies should kick in which should lead to a investigation and detailed analysis of the problem. What should not occur is a knee-jerk reaction. Switching off updates doesn't deal with the root cause of the problem. Also, switching off updates should go through a change control process and the associated risks should be picked up at this point.

Management ignorance of IT is not the issue. The issues are about riding roughshod over proper policies and processes - if they exist at all.

This situation generally occurs because the resource to implement proper processes do not exist. There is tendency to view IT as an obstacle rather than an enabler. "Projects" tend to suck resources away from business-as-usual IT support. Public sector pay can't compete with private sector pay (well - different equation now). Etc, etc...

Most of youse otha commenters kno nuffink. Youse are just as guilty as those managers who funked up because youse can't see the real problem and look towards a TECHNICAL solution to a problem that you THINK exists. Bah.

Choice?

Why on earth do users expect any choice in the machine that they have to work with? To be more specific, why do some users think that they should have a choice?

One of things that seems to encourage users to believe that they have choice in pc is being given choice in the model of company car. Same with mobile phones. I used to have something to do with company cars and you would not believe how obsessive and anal some people were about them. And often ordered totally impractical vehicles only to be stung by increases in fuel prices. Or ordered some stupid vehicle with bucket seats only to develop back problems as a result. Or ladies not doing any forward planning - oh, I'll get something sporty with difficult access and forget about the fact that I am planning to have a baby soon.

With mobile phones - if you only use the core functionality of the phone for business purposes - i.e. calls & texts, model doesn't matter very much, unless you go for something flaky.

Some organisations are too conscious of status. Senior executives break rules all the time because no one has the cojones to stand up to them. In status conscious organisations, things like the size of your desk and the sexiness of your pc are important. I know that I've struggled to get a more grunty box (that I genuinely needed) whereas senior executives got essentially expensive consumer market toys. Worse still, the CEO got the company to buy this kids with consumer PCs and suck the support.

Here's the rub. Tools vs toys. Business stuff should be tools. No organisation should pay for people's toys.

And...

Bah...

Mobile phones? God no. It's a vast waste of resources trying to work with anything other than barcodes printed on paper. I've got no problem with people paying for tickets using an e-wallet on their mobile, but I don't really see the point in trying to cater for thousands of different combinations of os and pixel density and colour profiles. Oh, sorry, your black is grey to me. And back lighting?

e-ticketing works in other scenarios, but it does annoy that the reduction in transaction cost is not passed onto the consumer. True, with air flight, there are some benefits in not having to queue to the same degree with automated check-in but I still get the wombles standing in my way.